When you get lost in nature in Ladakh
Sometimes it gets difficult to choose between Leh Ladakh and Spiti Valley. So, nowadays, many people are making a trip to Spiti Valley and Ladakh together. The most common route adventurists plan for this mega-adventure goes through Spiti Valley to Ladakh from Manali side.
However, some people do want to cover the whole circuit covering Hindustan Tibet Highway, Manali Leh Highway, and Srinagar Leh Highway. In between, they prefer to visit local sightseeing places in Leh Ladakh and Spiti Valley.
Today, in this article, I will be sharing the details of how to plan a trip from Spiti Valley to Ladakh from Manali side. I will answer some of the common doubts/questions of travelers who are interested in making such an adventurous yet heavenly road trip to Leh Ladakh in J&K and Spiti Valley in a remote corner of Himachal Pradesh.
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The day by day detailed itinerary of Spiti to Ladakh tour covers Srinagar – Leh Highway as well as Manali – Leh Highway. Hence, it is apt for those looking forward to covering the entire circuit of Ladakh and having enough time to do the Spiti Valley tour as well with it.
In this plan, I have started the trip from Manali – Spiti Valley side because most of the questions from the past ask about making Spiti Valley trip from Manali side and less from the Kinnaur Valley side. I believe this is mostly due to the less number of days in hand.
However, my personal preference will always be to start from the Kinnaur side and go over to Manali – Leh Highway from there to avoid any AMS issues either in Spiti Valley or at Manali – Leh. In the next article, I will also share an itinerary to travel to Spiti Valley and Ladakh together from Kinnaur side as well.
Let us look at some of the most frequently asked questions on planning a trip from Spiti to Leh Ladakh from Manali or Kinnaur side. These questions will help you plan your road trip to these places appropriately.
Yes, you can make a trip to Spiti and Ladakh together. However, you need to have a sufficient number of days in hand to make some sense of such a trip to both Ladakh and Spiti. Both Spiti Valley, as well as Ladakh, requires a decent number of days to make a memorable road trip. When you make a trip to both Ladakh and Spiti together, it means you need more days at hand.
You can travel to Spiti and Ladakh together by various modes as well as many different routes. You can plan to travel to Spiti via Manali and then move towards Ladakh from Manali Leh Highway. Or you can travel to Spiti via Kinnaur side and exit to Ladakh from Manali Leh Highway. Similarly, when in Ladakh, you can come back either from Leh to Manali route or exit via Srinagar Leh Highway. Finally, you can altogether reverse the route visiting Leh Ladakh from Srinagar side and then coming down to Manali – Spiti – Kinnaur – Shimla route.
When choosing between Spiti or Ladakh, the choice is not easy and depends upon a lot of factors. Both these places have amazing beauty of nature on offer, the down to earth culture and warmth of hospitality. In the end, it becomes a personal preference along with other factors like time of travel, budget at hand, group size, number of days, etc.. It is not an easy question to answer in few words. It requires a dedicated article on when to choose Leh Ladakh over Spiti Valley and when to plan the Spiti Valley tour over Ladakh. Mixing them will surely going to make some fabulous Ladakh Spiti adventures.
You can take the HRTC bus from Leh to Keylong, Lahaul Valley, and then there is a direct bus from Keylong to Kaza, Spiti Valley that runs daily early morning when the road from Keylong to Kaza is open. The Lahaul – Spiti to Leh distance can be covered in one day and then further from Lahaul (Keylong) to Spiti (Kaza), it will take another day.
You can find below a 16 Day trip plan for traveling Spiti Valley and Ladakh together. I am sure you should have some questions which I will be happy to answer, but more or less, the whole plan is self-explanatory and will help you make a memorable trip from Spiti Valley to Leh Ladakh. In case you are interested only in Spiti, then you can refer my most common Spiti Valley itinerary.
Day 1 | Delhi – Manali/Solang Valley
Day 2 | Manali / Solang Valley – Rohtang Pass – Kunzum Pass – Kaza
Day 3 | Kaza – Pin Valley (Mud Village) – Dhangkar – Dhangkar Lake – Tabo
Day 4 | Tabo to Kaza and then Ki – Kibber – Gette – Tashigang – Kaza
Day 5 | Kaza – Hikkim – Komik – Langza – Rangrik – Losar – Kunzum Pass – Chandratal / Battal
Day 6 | Battal / Chandratal – Gramphu – Keylong/Jispa
Day 7 | Keylong/Jispa – Baralacha La – Leh
Day 8 | Leh Local Sightseeing + Rest & Inner Line Permits
Day 9 | Leh – Khardung La – Diskit – Hunder
Day 10 | Hunder / Diskit – Sumur – Panamik – Sumur – Khardung La – Leh
Day 11 | Leh – Hemis Monastery – Pangong Tso Lake
Day 12 | Pangong Tso Lake – Thicksey Monastery – Shey Palace – Leh
Day 13 | Leh – Tso Moriri via Chumathang
Day 14 | Tso Moriri – Tso Kar – Debring (Manali – Leh Highway starts) – Moore Plains – Pang / Sarchu
Day 15 | Pang / Sarchu – Baralacha La – Keylong – Rohtang Pass – Manali
Day 16 | Manali – Delhi
Day 17 + 18 | Buffer Days
The other option is that you do not come back the same Manali – Leh Highway but go over Srinagar – Leh Highway to return back home from that route and complete the whole circuit. In this case, you can go back to Leh from Tso Moriri on Day 14 and start towards Srinagar – Leh Highway on Day 15 as mentioned below:
Day 14 | Tso Moriri – Tso Kar – Debring (Manali – Leh Highway starts) – Taglang La – Upshi – Leh
Day 15 | Leh – Sham Valley – Lamayuru – Kargil
Day 16 | Kargil – Drass – Zozi La – Sonamarg – Srinagar
Day 17 | Srinagar – Patnitop – Jammu
Day 18 | Jammu – Pathankot – Ambala – Delhi
Day 19 + 20 | Buffer days
I hope this itinerary for Spiti Valley & Leh Ladakh together will be useful for travelers planning their journey at least for the first time. I will look forward to any queries or doubts or valuable suggestions and inputs you have and would love to discuss your custom plan as well in the comments section. If you plan to make this trip by public transport like HRTC buses or shared taxis, you should plan for some more buffer days or may need to skip some places.
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If you want any customization or deviation from the above plan, feel free to ask any queries, and in case you know a friend who is interested in such a plan, feel free to share the article with them.
If you know your friends or family are planning a trip from Spiti Valley to Ladakh, do share this article with them to help them make a memorable adventure road trip.
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